QUERETARO, a city of Mexico, capital of the state of the same name, lies on a plateau 5900 feet above the sea, 152∣ miles, north-west of Mexico by the Central Mexican Railway. It is a well-built place with a beautiful tree-planted alameda, a cathedral, and several handsome churches and convents (Santa Clara, worthy of special note), a hospital, and other public buildings; and it is supplied with excellent water from the mountains by a great stone aqueduct erected at the expense of the Marquis de Villar del Aquila whose statue adorns one of the squares. In manufactures it occupies a high place, producing cotton and woollen goods, leather, soap, and wood-carvings. The great Hercules cotton-factory, about 2 miles by rail from the town, is enclosed by a high loop-holed wall and defended by a small company of soldiers; in this way the proprietors have maintained their position since 1840 in spite of all the revolutions that have swept over the country. About 1400 operatives (all Mexicans) are employed, and work is carried on both day and night. Unbleached cotton is the staple product. The population of the city was stated at 38,000 in 1882.

Queretaro was captured by the Spaniards in 1536, and made a city in 1655. In 1848 it was the seat of a congress by which peace between Mexico and the United States was ratified, and in 1867 the emperor Maximilian, unable to hold it against the republicans under Escobedo, was made prisoner and shot on the Cerro de las Campanas to the north of the town.